


A Bit of a Mind Flip

by Plotbunny_Junction (Brachylagus_fandom)



Category: Honor Harrington Series - David Weber
Genre: Cultural Differences, Gen, Rocky Horror Picture Show References
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-27
Updated: 2020-05-27
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:55:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24411649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brachylagus_fandom/pseuds/Plotbunny_Junction
Summary: Abigail did not think that humming the tune to her favorite children's show would cause this sort of reaction.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 29
Collections: Banned Banned Together Bingo 2020, Banned Together Bingo 2020





	A Bit of a Mind Flip

Abigail Hearns was used to That Look, the one that made her wonder if she had somehow grown a second head without noticing. When she was a child, her fellow Graysons directed it at her for declaring her intention to become a Navy officer and pushing to take the necessary math and hard science courses to do so; now, on Saganami Island with her dream tantalizingly close, her fellow cadets used it when she acted in a way that struck them as particularly Grayson, like balking at a sailing trip on the Tannerman Ocean or not having been lightly traumatized by  _ The Stranger Friend _ as a child. However, she would not have thought humming the tune of her favorite children's show - even one that, horror of horrors, hadn't aired outside the Yeltsin system - would warrant Taliesin giving her That Look.

"Your dad thought  _ Preston of the Spaceways _ was too vulgar to show-", Abigail tried to protest that neither Steadholder Owens nor either of his wives were involved in producing the Unchained from Lewdity List, but her roommate barreled on, "-but he let you watch  _ Rocky Horror?" _

"What's Rocky Horror?" Abigail asked. Taliesin's eyebrows rose higher than they had when Abigail had asked why the Mary figure in the nativity at St. Michael's Cathedral had been wearing blue rather than Mayhew maroon. "Tali, I have a test tomorrow on multi-dimensional math, not Manty pop culture, stop giving me That Look-"

"You were just humming the Time Warp!"

"And?"

"Where do you think that song comes from?"

_ "Time Warpers?" _ Abigail tapped out a search on her holoscreen and quickly found a promotional image for the latest season. "It's the theme song, and an instrumental version plays when the protagonists travel through time." 

"Abby…" Taliesin's eyes flicked back and forth between the image of the show's three protagonists (and Manna, their pet bird who Abigail had very briefly found endearing) and Abigail's face as if they were trying to determine if this was some sort of prank. "Is that a kid's holo?"

"Yes?" Abigail, who had thought the basic concept of "a group of friends go on vaguely educational adventures" was popular for children's entertainment across star systems, was confused when Taliesin's rendition of That Look approached levels she had previously thought limited to Steadholder Mackenzie and her mother Sandra.

"So women's ankles are too racy for Grayson's holonet-"

"For the last time, Grayson shows don't censor women's ankles and shoulders - I don't even know where you got that idea from-"

"-but it's totally fine for the theme song of a kid's holo to contain the phrase 'pelvic thrust?'" As Taliesin looked at her for an answer, it was Abigail's turn to make That Look and wonder if Manticoran water really  _ didn't _ rot the brain of whoever swam in it.

"It's  _ quantum _ thrust," Abigail said and, when Taliesin opened her mouth, added,  _ "Time Warpers _ is my younger siblings' favorite show. I have accidentally stepped on at least eight different Manna figurines and seen every episode approximately three times. I know what the theme tune's lyrics are. And unless you want to explain what 'Rocky Horror' is and what the Time Warp has to do with it, I am going back to studying."

"Yeah, that's… fair." Taliesin sighed. "The Time Warp - the  _ original _ version - comes from  _ The Rocky Horror Picture Show, _ which is a holovid that dates back to the second century Ante Diaspora, back when they were called 'movies', and is… basically the opposite of a kid's holo? I can't really explain it; it's one of those things that you really need to see to understand… Does Halloween fall into Landing Day break this year?"

"It does," Abigail said as she turned back to her math textbook. "Why?"

"I  _ so _ need to take you to a midnight screening."


End file.
